Magical Girl Trixie: Revival

This chapter is narrated by Cross Stitch, also known as the magical girl Divinity.

I was nineteen years old the first time I ever killed anyone, when I actually first attained my magical powers, the powers that made me into the magical girl Divinity. The real story, though, begins a few years before that.

My family lived on B Street in downtown Manehattan, which, to those who aren’t as versed with the geography of the city, is the poorest single street in all of Equestria. There are no houses, no buildings, not even any trees. Instead, the street borders the Manehattan cemetery, and the cops never kicked out the multitude of homeless people, just because they thought it would be easier to move our bodies into the next closest ditch rather than bring us back in a casket when we were undoubtedly killed by starvation or murder. All my parents knew when we moved there, though, was that this would be the place where we would call home, but in reality, this was where most people in Manehattan went to die.

I was sixteen at the time.

There had been a recession in Manehattan the previous year, which was only made worse when considering the fact that my father worked part-time at a minimum wage job, and even then, he gambled away most of the money he earned. My mother said that she was a stay-at-home mom, but in reality, she would spend all day and all night drinking, leaving our modest income to pay for rent, booze and whatever food we managed to steal from the supermarket down the road. While my parents were busy ruining their own lives, I was busy ruining mine, going to school just so I could sneak out with friends, go to parties, break into homes while people were away at work and drink until my liver forced me to black out.

Then the news broke that my father had lost his job, and to make matters worse, he had already asked for an extension on paying that month’s rent, which he had gambled away on dog fights. The three of us were on the street a week later with nothing to our name but a blanket and six bits to last us as long as possible. The cherry on top, though, was that the blanket would be stolen by the time the sun came up.

None of us were exactly ready to call B Street our new home, but I was the most reluctant out of the three of us, instead trying to live in my friends’ cars to avoid literal homelessness. Eventually, though, my friends all began to leave me to fend for myself, giving me excuse after excuse about how they didn’t have the money to keep feeding me or how I reeked of booze all the time or how they wanted me to get my life back together. They just didn’t want to come out and say what they were really thinking: they didn’t want to deal with some homeless girl mooching off of them and making them look bad in front of their friends. One by one, I ran out of friends until I was forced back onto B Street to join my parents, and to my genuine unsurprise, they had wasted their six bits on lottery tickets. Needless to say, they didn’t win.

For my first two weeks, I just lived how everyone else did, by walking around begging for money until the night broke when everyone on B Street came back to settle in for the cold evenings that Manehattan always brought. Then, when morning came, we would find whoever died the previous night, bury them as a group, find a place for the newcomers on B Street to get situated and go back to begging on random street corners. The rules of the street were as follows: don’t take anyone’s street corner, guard your shit, and every man for himself. Breaking the first rule, however, was strictly impermissible, and anyone found violating this rule would be given the death penalty, which was something we saw reinforced every night. If you ever saw someone being killed, the unspoken rule was to turn your head, cover your ears and try your best to block out the screams.

This life was not for me. In my sixteen year old naivety, I honestly believed that I had more to life, like just because I had goals and ambitions that that somehow made me better than everyone else on the streets. Growing up, I learned that my special talent was designing outfits, and even with my broken family and less than fruitious upbringing, I had the goal of being the best fashion designer in the city. Manehattan was the central hub for all of fashion in Equestria, after all, which meant to me that the odds were in my favor. Sadly, though, life has a cruel way of showing us what an unforgiving bitch reality is, and after I was caught stealing fabrics from a nearby shop, I was promptly arrested and sent off to a juvenile corrections facility.

It was just like what they show on TV. The walls were all white bricks, the cells were thick white doors with small windows, and we all had to wear the same disgusting white jumpsuits, making me detest that one color more than anything else. It was almost like a symbol for them trying to break our spirits, to wipe our psychological slate so that they could instill their own colors into our minds with whatever colors they chose. Even after experiencing homelessness on the most dangerous street in all of Equestria, nothing would compare to the anguish that I felt during the six months that I spent in juvenile hall.

I couldn’t believe all the things I had taken for granted on the outs, such as sunlight, fresh air, bearable meals, not having to smell someone taking a shit right next to you (although that did still happen every once in a while on B Street), but most importantly, even with the cancerous mentality of hopelessness that I had grown up with, I didn’t have someone constantly barraging me with inferiority, forcing a mindset of worthlessness down my throat on a daily basis. I once saw someone who talked back to one of our prison guards--excuse me, “correctional advisors”--and in a heartbeat, everyone in general population was quickly sent back to their cells. Then, even though I couldn’t see too clearly out of my cell window, I was able to make out the guard talking into his radio, and after several guards came in as back up, they began to escort her away. They didn’t think that anyone would be able to see when they took out their knightsticks and began breaking her bones in the middle of the hallway, an injustice that would be deemed as justified to anyone who wasn’t there.

Aside from the hell that was juvenile hall, however, was the one gemstone that would turn everything around, making the entire experience almost worth the trouble. Luckily for me, I shared a cell with a girl named Delilah Diamond, who just happened to be a member of the Diamond Dogs, a gang in Manehattan so powerful that even the cops thought twice about arresting its members. Delilah, however, was their leader, and when the cops arrested her, they thought that it would mean the end of the gang once and for all, completely unaware of just how pissed off it would make them.

For the first three months I was there, while Delilah awaited her sentencing, the two of us were inseparable, spending every waking minute talking to each other about our life experiences. When we weren't talking about life on the outside, we were finding new and creative ways to get into trouble, usually with one of us acting as a distraction while the other stole from the guards or fucked up any of the inmates who pissed us off the day before. The amount of power and confidence that she displayed, even while the two of us were locked up in a cell, was something that I always admired and would never forget, but halfway into my jail time, she was sentenced to life in prison at Canterlot Penitentiary, where she would eventually be given the death penalty.

Before she left me to fend for myself, knowing full well how much danger I was in now that the guards and inmates knew I had no backup, she told me how to get ahold of the Diamond Dogs, making everyone aware that if any of them tried to lay a finger on me, their families would be dead by sunrise the next day. She had just barely turned 18 the day of her sentencing, which meant that she could legally be tried as an adult, a fact that I was sure the courts had planned ahead of time. When I got out, I would make sure everyone associated with the death of Delilah Diamond would regret everything they ever did to her.

When I finally made it out of juvenile hall, I was seventeen years old, and as expected, my parents hadn't managed to find jobs or come up with any viable plans for leaving B Street. In fact, I was lucky that either one of them was able to pick me up from the facility, although when my mother came to get me, she was almost locked up herself for public intoxication. It was obvious that if I stayed with my parents for much longer, I would end up turning into them, mooching off of street corners forever while dedicating my life to alcoholism. If I was really serious about turning my life around, I needed help from someone else. I needed the Diamond Dogs, both for myself and for Delilah.

“Who the fuck are you?”

The next day, after I had arrived at the location that Delilah had given me, I was immediately met with a burly man with tattoos all over his body standing guard at the Diamond Dogs’ hideout. “Cross Stitch,” I said with an obvious bite in my tone. “Delilah sent me here, so if you don't back out of the way--”

As I tried to make my way past him, however, he held out his arm, further blocking the door and looking down on me with a pissed off glare, which would have been more intimidating had I not experienced this exact same thing for past six months. “Delilah's on death row. She ain't gonna save you.”

This had worked out far better in my head, but I wasn't about to let him get in my way. “So what?! You're not even going to follow your boss's orders anymore?!”

“I sure as hell ain't gonna let some bitch in a training bra give me orders.”

“The fuck did you call me?!”

Out of instinct from my jail time alone, I immediately reached into my shirt, pulled out a knife and swung it towards the thug at the door, but as if it were nothing, he grabbed my hand, punched me across the face and fell forward on top of me, sending my face down onto the concrete. As I struggled to get myself off of the ground, though, he reached into his own shirt and pulled out something much stronger than anything I had: a fully loaded revolver, pointing it straight at my head. When I was in jail, the guards had guns themselves, but they were mainly for intimidation while they crushed our bones with nightsticks and electrocuted us with tasers. This was the first time in my life that I actually had a gun pointed at me, and as tough as I had been brought up to be with Delilah's help, I was beginning to shake in terror, knowing that any second, I was going to be killed…

“Get off of her, Roadblock.”

...only, by some miracle, I had managed to survive.

With a little bit of hesitancy, the thug named Roadblock slowly began to pull himself off of me, but not before pushing my face into the ground, giving me another mouthful of the sidewalk. Once he was all the way up, I then followed suit, pulling myself up to my knees and brushing away the gross debris that was now all over my baggy shirt and pants. When I finally lifted my head, though, I saw a young man, probably no older than nineteen years old with the most stunningly gorgeous facial features looking back down at me. I would have been entranced by his beauty alone had I not been reeling from an unexpected adrenaline rush, which was still silently trying to convince me to turn around and run as fast as I could.

“You’re Cross Stitch, right?” he asked, to which I nodded my head hesitantly. “That’s perfect! Delilah said she’d be sending someone here! Roadblock, what are you doing? Go back to your door and do your damn job already.” Roadblock scoffed, turning his attention away from the two of us as the young man tilted his head to the side, inviting me into the dark warehouse.

Upon entering the Diamond Dogs’ home base, I noticed a stark contrast to how everyone else looked in comparison to the sleek, blue business suit that the man in front of me was donning. While the other members of the Diamond Dogs wore tank tops, ripped denim jeans and had tattoos all over their bodies, the man ahead of me had his golden hair combed back with perfectly tanned skin and a posture that projected eloquent elegance.

“Roadblock didn’t hurt you at all, did he?”

I quickly snapped out of my trance and replied, “No, I’m good… Where are you taking me, by the way?”

“To my office. We need to go through some initiation.”

I shuddered at what he meant by “initiation,” but I was the one who volunteered to come here. Plus, if I tried to cause any sort of trouble while I was here, that bouncer out front would probably put some led through my skull before I could even make it three steps towards B Street. Fortunately, however, it was only a few moments later that the two of us made it into a bright office whose walls depicted the entire map of Manehattan with several pins located in random parts of the town.

“Please,” he said motioning towards a chair as he sat behind his desk, “have a seat.”

As I sat down slowly, still be extra cautious about the area I was in, I asked rather bluntly, “Who even are you?”

With a smirk, he replied, “My name is Golden Gavel. I’m the de facto leader of the Diamond Dogs after Delilah’s sudden departure.”

The way he said it so matter-of-factly pissed me off inside, like somehow he was disrespecting Delilah’s true status as leader of the Diamond Dogs before she was even officially executed. At the same time, though, this was who she trusted me to before we were separated, not to mention the man who just saved my life moments earlier, and so with my head lowered in respect, I said, “I’m sorry if I came off as rude. I guess I’m just… not used to this new lifestyle just yet.”

“Well,” he continued, kicking his designer shoes onto his desk, “Delilah must have seen something in you to refer you to us. The real question now is, what do you expect to get out of the Diamond Dogs?”

In all honesty, that was something I was hoping he could answer for me. What I really wanted was a home, like a real home inside an actual building, preferably with a family that wasn’t dysfunctional, and enough money for me to be able to eat without stealing anymore. At the same time, though, if I told Golden Gavel any of that, he would almost definitely laugh in my face.

“Money,” I blurted out. “Lots and lots of money.”

“Well, rest assured that if you manage to move up our ranks, you’ll be able to afford a lot more than what I’m wearing now.” As he said those words, he made sure to pull back on his tailored suit to flash his golden watch before bringing his hands behind his head and leaning back in his lavish leather chair. Everything he wore was exactly the kind of clothes that I wanted to design growing up, and the fact that he could afford to wear something like this on a regular day gave me the slightest bit of hope that maybe one day I could return to the dreams I had growing up. I almost believed that I could actually have a normal life for once, but before I could allow the thought to sink into my mind, he brought his feet back to the floor and said, “Of course, you’re going to have to do a lot of grunt work before you can move up around here. This place is very competitive and very cutthroat, just like the real world.”

“I’ll do it.” He lifted his eyebrow with a small grin. Admittedly, I had just blurted out my commitment without really thinking it over, but if this was the way to get my life back together, it sure beat the hell out of whatever B Street was offering me. “Just tell me where to start. I’ll take care of the rest.”

The sentence would be the second most important sentence I ever said in my life.

After my meeting with Golden Gavel, he put me into a team with two other girls just recently out of prison, Easy Peasy and Mustard Seed. Easy Peasy was much more easy going, living as one of the Diamond Dogs mainly just to join the family that came with being part of the gang, but Mustard Seed was the polar opposite. She had recently just given birth to a little girl named Babs, and she wanted to work as hard as she possibly could so that she could make some money, quit the Diamond Dogs and never let her little girl find out about her previous lifestyle. The two of them combined gave me exactly what I needed: a family that was much stronger than what I had been born with and the work ethic to kick my ass back into shape to take on the real world.

Never had time passed so quickly in my life. It seemed like three weeks had passed when my nine month mark came around, a date I only remember because it was the day that Delilah was officially killed by the department of justice. None of us were allowed to see her execution, which was probably a good thing. If any of us had been there, watching the cops kill her in front of our very eyes, we probably would have done something stupid and gotten the whole gang into trouble. The police weren’t trying to bust our operation mainly because they thought that catching Delilah would mean the end of organized crime in downtown Manehattan, but little did they know that they just poked the hornets’ nest that would come crashing down on them like a fucking rocket.

Up until that point, my team’s responsibilities were mainly just transporting weapons, seeing as how the cops never took a second glance at a couple of pretty girls walking down the street. Unfortunately for them, however, usually on our way back to the base, we would typically see an extra body or two laying on the street, completely motionless as blood poured out of their bodies. At first it was just police officers that we would find dead upon our arrival, and honestly, even though everyone told me how mortifying it was seeing a dead person for the first time, all I could feel was gratitude, knowing that those punks who killed Delilah were getting a taste of their own medicine. What really tore me up, though, was when the cops eventually began to sniff our gang out, and every once in a while on our way back home, rather than seeing a dead cop, we would find the body of one of our brothers.

I was becoming more motivated than ever, both because I wanted to avenge my fallen comrades as well as because I wanted to finally have a life where I wouldn’t need to worry anymore. I didn’t necessarily want to leave the Diamond Dogs for greener pastures, but I couldn’t deny how scared I was that someday one of those bodies lying on the street would be mine. Paradoxically, in order to make that happen, I needed to work twice as hard, making twice as many deliveries, taking note of every possible detail so that I could report it and hopefully save one of our men. The more successful we were, however, meant the more people we needed to hire onto the team, which in turn meant more people competing to move up Golden Gavel’s occupational hierarchy.

After two years of working with the Diamond Dogs, though, I finally felt like I was ready for my promotion, even though I didn’t know what something like that was supposed to look like. All I knew when I knocked on Golden Gavel’s door that Thursday night was that I wanted to see how I could take on more responsibilities, hopefully in a less dangerous setting. Once I heard footsteps approaching that door, however, my throat quickly dried up, making me literally gag in anxiety as I waited for his silver doorknob to make its way ninety degrees.

“Ohhh, Cross Stitch,” he said, opening the door. “I wasn’t expecting you. Come right in, please.” As usual, he fell back into the leather seat behind his desk, and I took the seat across from him, hesitantly avoiding eye contact, which probably made me even more nervous than I already was. “So, what can I do to help you, dear?”

I rubbed my elbows, still looking away. “Well… I just hit my two year mark since joining the Diamond Dogs…”

“Has it really been that long? We should do something to commemorate the occasion!”

“N-no! Really! That’s alright…”

Golden Gavel then leaned over his desk, reaching into his drawer to pull out a small pair of glasses that he used to examine me even closer. The hair on my arms was standing up as he tilted one eyebrow with a mischievous smile and asked, “Then what are you really doing here?”

“I… uh…” I gulped hard in my throat. If I didn’t get it off my chest now, I had no idea whether or not he’d ever take me seriously again. “I was hoping that I could be given a new position, s-sir.”

His smile only seemed to grow wider as he sat back in his chair, putting his hands together and twiddling with his thumbs. “You’re a very brave girl to ask me for a promotion.” Finally, my heart had a chance to breathe. His demeanor and tone were so calming that for a moment, I forgot that I was in the office of the Diamond Dogs’ kingpin, but that was quickly erased once he opened his mouth to speak again. “Unfortunately, however, I have no way of helping you.”

“What?!” I snapped, leaping to my feet, glaring daggers at him while he relaxed back in his chair. “I don’t get this! For two years I’ve been doing your dirty work, putting myself in danger on a daily basis, walking out very openly in public--unlike what the boys are doing, by the way--and you’re telling me that it’s not good enough?”

“Calm down, Cross Stitch.”

“No! You’re telling me that after all that hard work, you’re not even gonna fucking negotiate?! Not even a damn pay-raise for everything I’ve done for your sorry ass over the past two fucking years?”

“Cross Stitch, I said calm DOWN!” Just for added effect, he slammed his hands down onto his desk, making me quickly fall back to my chair as I remembered that pissing him off would be far worse than pissing off some street cop. “Now, you accuse me of not negotiating with you when you didn’t even give me an opportunity to give you my rebuttal.” I wanted to answer him, even if it just meant nodding my head, but I was too intimidated to move a single muscle. “You want a new position? You’re going to have to earn it the same way everyone else does.”

“And… you’re saying that I haven’t earned it?”

“You’ve earned…” Golden Gavel smirked. “...an opportunity.”

“W-what do you mean?”

Taking his glasses off of his face, he pulled out a small cloth and began wiping down his lenses. “In order to move up, you need to go on a specific errand. What you’ve been doing these past two years is basically helping our security unit do their rounds. You haven’t even begun to see what’s going on in the inner circle, where we actually make the money that you use to eat with.”

Now that he mentioned it, I couldn’t believe that I had never asked how we made so much money to begin with. I had always just assumed that he was doing some kind of business negotiations with other gangs like insider stock trading or something, but I never actually thought to ask for the details.

“So…” I began, “...what do I have to do?”

Standing up from his seat, he made his way to his wall, staring down at a pin on his map of Manehattan. “You’re going to aid our main unit on Whinny Avenue. You see, most of the money we make comes from receiving firearms from regional distributors, shipping them to vendors and selling them to people just like you, straight out of prison who can’t obtain one legally. Unfortunately, the economy never changes, and with that comes competition. However, people in Manehattan need to realize that we have a monopoly in this business, and if they can’t be reasoned with, we need to remove them altogether.”

My eyes grew wide as I finally began to comprehend what he was saying.

Turning his head so that his eyes met mine, he said, “I want you to go in there and kill every single one of them.”

I had taken the evening to think about whether I really wanted to go through with Golden Gavel’s plan, even if it meant being able to put myself into less dangerous positions in the future. After Delilah Diamond’s death, I began to see human life as something precious, something that should be protected at all costs, and even though I was gratified in seeing dead cops everywhere I went, the pain of seeing my fallen brothers made me wonder whether or not any of this was even worth it. That being said, now that I had a family, a real family, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to risk my own life knowing that I finally had something worth living for, but if I never went through with this assignment, I began to wonder whether or not I would ever be able to truly move on from my duties.

Mustard Seed had recently left the Diamond Dogs on good terms so that she could care for her daughter, and Easy Peasy would be fine with the same job she was doing for the rest of her life. As I sat down that evening, honestly thinking of where I wanted my life to go, I had to make a decision on whether this one act of killing while putting my own life in danger was really worth whatever I hoped to get after that.

With my mind drawing a blank in both ethics and risk assessment, the only thing I could do was fall down onto my knees and pray, praying for anyone or anything that could hear me.

“I don’t know if there is a god out there, but any god would work for me. If anyone out there can hear me, please… give me an answer! I’ve worked so hard to be where I am now, and I’m so grateful that I’ve been given a second chance at life, but is this really how my life is going to be forever? Is there any way for me to have the life that I want? To choose my own path?”

I waited and waited for an answer, but unfortunately, the decision would ultimately fall back onto my shoulders. Then, with no other ideas left, I decided that this was a risk I would be willing to take, and the following day, I would speak to Golden Gavel, accept the assignment, and do my job, whatever it entailed.

My job was simple: head into a predetermined location for negotiations where both gangs would meet unarmed for a “healthy discussion” on how proceedings would take place. As we entered into the warehouse that we would be meeting in, both the Diamond Dogs and the rival gang would search each other for weapons, but there was an unspoken rule that the women would not be searched, which meant that I got to enter the warehouse carrying a fully-loaded pistol between my shirt and shorts with several extra rounds of ammo hidden in my boots. As I looked around at the turnout once seemingly everyone was inside the area, I didn’t see a single girl from the opposing gang. This was it. Everything had gone exactly according to plan.

Finally, the doors closed, leaving the warehouse’s dim lights as the only lightsource left in the building with no way in or out. Almost immediately, Golden Gavel stepped into the middle of the circle that we had created, with Diamond Dogs on one side and the opposing group on the other.

“Gentlemen,” he began, “I’m so glad that you could all be joining us today.”

“What’s this about, Golden Gavel?” a burly man with a scar across his left eye spat out. “I sincerely doubt that you wanted to negotiate in a way that would work out in our favor.”

“Hasty as always, Sharp Tooth. The reason I gathered you all here today is actually to provide you with money.” The opposing gang all began to talk with themselves as Golden Gavel called for a briefcase. Then, opening the briefcase for all to see, there must have been millions of bills worth of bits, making the opposing gang nearly salivate as they looked at the money with awe. “However,” he continued, closing the briefcase, “I cannot give you this money as a gesture of goodwill.”

“You’re asking us to leave, then. Is that it? You’re paying us off to shut down our operations in Manehattan?”

“I would prefer to think of it as a relocation stipend. It’s worth thinking over as a group, though, wouldn’t you say? You get twelve million bits to disperse amongst yourselves just for picking a new base somewhere else. That’s hardly a bad deal on my part, if I do say so myself.”

Sharp Tooth looked back to his men, who all nodded in agreement, then back to Golden Gavel, and by the look in his eyes, I could tell that they weren’t going to cooperate like I had hoped. “No deal, Golden Gavel. I’m sorry we had to do this to you.”

Almost instantly, several of the opposing gang’s thugs began to pull out handguns, including one thug who handed Sharp Tooth an automatic assault rifle. The Diamond Dogs, including myself, all began to look at each other in total fear, trying to figure out how they had managed to sneak in weapons, but moments later, we saw Roadblock, the biggest guy out of all of us, carrying an assault rifle of his own.

“Roadblock…” Golden Gavel began. “You double-crossed us?”

“Sorry, boss,” he said sympathetically. “I follow Delilah Diamond, not you.”

Immediately, Golden Gavel’s eyes fell back onto me, pleading with me for dear life for me to take action and save his life, but with all that was going on in that moment, my body wouldn’t move. I was frozen solid, trying to reach for the pistol in my shirt as the rest of the Diamond Dogs looked on in terror, wondering if any of them were going to make it out alive. I had more responsibility than to just kill an opposing gang; now I had to save the lives of my entire family while fighting about a dozen thugs, all of which were carrying weapons.

“CROSS STITCH! NOW!”

Closing my eyes, I broke past my mental block, reached into my shirt and pulled out my handgun, quickly pointing to Roadbloack who already had his gun pointed between my eyes. I needed to pull the trigger. Now. Not a moment later. Now! Do it, Cross Stitch! Why can’t you move?! He’s going to kill you! PULL THE FUCKING TRIGGER!

Before I could make a move, though, I felt several bullets make their way into my body, poking holes in my windpipe, throat, shoulder blades, lung, and heart. I wanted to breathe so bad, but no matter how much I heaved, I couldn’t feel any air making its way back into my body. All I could feel was the entire room growing colder, or was that how I was feeling inside my own body? Had the lights always been this dim? I could see several of the Diamond Dogs screaming, but for some reason, none of the sound was reaching my ears, like someone just pressed the mute button during the biggest event of my life. Even when I hit the floor, I couldn’t feel or hear anything, but just before my vision blurred to the point of total darkness, I could see a river of red decorating the floor.

With one final heave, I took in a breath, but as before, nothing went in. Instead, I just breathed out the rest of the air in my lungs as the rest of the world disappeared behind me.

…

“Cross Stitch…”

…

“Cross Stitch…”

“H-huh?”

…

“W-wait! Is someone there?”

…

“Am I alive? Where am I? What’s going on?”

I was finally able to open my eyes, but when I looked around, all I could see was darkness, although this darkness was different than what I had seen before. When I looked down at my hands, I could see their shape in front of me, contrasting as if they were lighting up in the darkness surrounding me. I could feel air moving back into my lungs, but for some reason, I also felt like I had no reason to breathe anymore. I was pretty sure I could hear again, but the voice I heard earlier wasn’t talking back anymore.

“Hey! Are you still there? I want to talk to you!”

“What would you like to talk about?”

I still couldn’t see anyone, but I could at least hear their voice.

“Am… Am I still alive?”

“No, you are most definitely dead.”

I clicked my tongue. “Figures. Then what is this? Am I in an afterlife or something?”

“Not yet. Right now, you are in the balance between life and death.”

“So like… I’m mostly dead but not all dead?”

“Exactly.”

“OK. So… is there a way for me to go back to being alive?”

“Is that really what you want?”

I had to honestly think about that question for a minute. If I were dead, at least this way I could be free from everything I had to deal with when I was with the Diamond Dogs. I loved them as my family, but that didn’t change the fact that I was still stressing every day about whether or not I would ever make it out of there. At least this way I knew for sure, but if I stayed here, who knew what would happen to me?

“I… I think so.”

“Then I need you to make a deal with me, Cross Stitch.” Another deal. I was so fed up with deals at this point that I was just about to accept my fate and let death take me away, but before I could make that decision, the voice continued. “I want to give you magic that only you can use. Once you have that magic, you can do whatever you want with it.”

“Magic? The fuck are you talking about? I haven’t believed in magic since I was nine!”

“But you believe that what’s happening right now is real, don’t you? Were you not the one praying last night for any god that heard you to give you answers?”

“...Shit, you’re good. OK, hold on. Before I say yes to anything, is that really all you want? You just want me to be some kind of magical girl?”

The voice chuckled. “Magical girl. I like the sound of that.”

“Hello?”

“Hold your horses, Cross Stitch! I was just going to have you go back and cause chaos, but now you’ve given me an idea.”

What was he even talking about? He wanted me to create chaos? No doubt I was good at that, but what ideas did I give him? What did he want out of me?

“Alright, Cross Stitch. I’ll return you back to life as well as give you magical powers, but first you have to do three things for me.”

“Fine. Whatever. What do you want?”

“First you need to tell me what magical power you would like to have.”

I scoffed, thinking that the answer was obvious. “Can I have all of them? The power to use whatever power I want?”

The voice suddenly cackled demonically, giving me a disturbing feeling in my chest. “I like the way you think, Cross Stitch! Although, I think a new name would fit your new persona, wouldn’t you agree?”

I scratched my head, wondering whether or not what he said was some kind of subtle jab at my real name, but if this meant that I got to come back to life and hopefully save my friends, I would play whatever game he had in mind. This part, though, needed some serious thought. If I had to pick a new name, it couldn’t be like a tattoo that I would regret later in life. The name that I chose would have to give hope to the people close to me while creating terror for anyone who opposed me.

Finally, with my head held high, I said with total confidence, “Divinity.”

“Divinity, eh? It seems like you and I think on the same level.”

“OK, cool. That’s great. Wasn’t there a third thing you wanted me to do?”

“...Divinity, we really need to work on how you treat authority figures. Anyway! As you may or may not know, a magical girl’s power comes from the love she feels towards others. Before I grant you with this power, I need to make sure you can use it.” I tried to keep myself from laughing at his corny lecture, but I couldn’t stop myself from grinning with a stupid look on my face. “So, before I give you this power, you must tell me who you love more than anyone else in the whole world.”

“...You’re kidding, right?”

“Uh-oh! Your light is beginning to disappear!”

Looking down at my skin, I could see that he was right. The darkness around me was beginning to take over my sight once again, leaving me without much time before death pulled me away entirely. “OK! OK! I’ll answer the question!” The real problem, though, was that I really didn’t know the answer to the question. I didn’t love my parents, I loved everyone in the Diamond Dogs equally, and I sure as hell didn’t have a boy in my life that I was crazy about, but with the darkness overtaking my body, I had to come up with an answer quick. “I love… myself.”

The voice paused for a moment, making me wonder if he was even still there. “Yourself?”

I breathed a sigh of relief. “Yeah. If there’s anyone that I can rely on more than anyone else, it has to be myself. I guess I’ve always been one to put myself before others, so it seems fitting that I say that I love myself most, right?”

There was silence for a few brief moments, but then I could gradually hear the faint sounds of laughter, growing louder and louder until it was a maniacal, ear-shattering cackle. “Divinity, I just know that the two of us are going to be best pals!”

Taking in a deep breath, I finally said, “OK. Turn me into a magical girl.”

This... would be the single most important sentence I ever said in my life.

Suddenly, he snapped a finger, and before I knew it, I could feel my body begin to change. Every piece of me was beginning to contort and change, from my hair which gradually grew down to my thighs or the blood in my veins which I could feel begin to change into something entirely different. I felt stronger, lighter, faster, smarter, and even prettier. Looking down at my hands, I saw a pair of golden bracelets dangling from my wrists atop a pair of long, white sleeves. Moving my hands aside, I noticed a white dress that wrapped around my thighs like a skirt, revealing my pure white skin contrasting with the golden sandals strapped around my legs. Then, with one final pulse of magic surging through my back, I fell forward, collapsing to my knees as a large pair of wings jetted from my spine with a size that was greater than my entire body.

I was no longer human. I was now this being’s creation: a magical girl.

As I finally lifted my head, however, I was met with a pair of bright, yellow eyes staring back at me, and if that didn’t scare me, then the eagle claw, lion paw and snake tail sure as hell did the trick. This was the creature that did this to me, and suddenly, I was wondering whether or not I had really made the right choice.

“It’s a pleasure to officially meet you Divinity,” he said quietly. “My name is Discord.”

Then, before I had the chance to even open my mouth, the darkness was beginning to fade away, turning into a blinding light and forcing me to squeeze my eyelids together. After a few moments of searing light, however, I was met with darkness again, although this darkness was considerably different than the darkness I was in before. This time, it was a much more familiar feeling.

Before I could open my eyelids again, however, I felt a searing pain in my shoulders, chest and neck, combined with the sounds of screams and gunshots all around me. There was no doubt about it. I was back to life exactly where I had died.

Gradually, I began to lift myself off the floor, my hand getting covered in my blood from earlier as I propped myself up with my wobbly arm. Then, using my other hand to feel my wounds, I could feel where the holes were, but somehow, they had already closed up. Discord didn’t bring me back just to die again, which meant that no matter what happened here, I had to survive.

“Cross Stitch!” one of my men shouted. “Boss! Cross Stitch is still alive!”

As I weakly tried to get myself back up to my knees while avoiding bullets, Golden Gavel came running to my side, pushing over a table to give us any protection possible. “Cross Stitch! We need to get you out of here! I’m so sorry that--”

“My name isn’t Cross Stitch.”

Golden Gavel, still heaving in terror, tilted his eyebrow. “What?”

“My name… IS DIVINITY!!”

Then, with all the magic in my veins pooling in at once, I rose to my feet, changing myself into a magical girl and reversing time itself, making everything turn backwards like a VHS tape in rewind. Finally, once I got to the part where Roadblock first pulled his gun on me, I lifted my hand, causing his brain to hemorrhage inside his skull, sending blood pouring out of his eyes and mouth. Then I went through all the opposing gang members with guns, killing them off one by one in a way that could only be done with my new powers. Heart attack. Internal electrocution. Organs literally disintegrating. Replacing blood with sulfuric acid. Even brainwashing one man into unloading his gun on himself, making sure that he used all of his bullets before he eventually put it into his mouth and shot down his throat.

As I killed off half of them, I froze the other half so that they could watch in horror as their own men died, but before they could run away in terror, I would cause them all to die by their own hand, in a way that was as long and painful as I could have possibly imagined. Then, looking over at my own men, I saw them fall to their knees and tremble in fear. It took me a few moments before I realized that I wasn’t dressed like Cross Stitch as they had remembered, but was rather in an angelic costume, bringing about my own divine justice. I couldn’t let them know that the Cross Stitch they had all come to love was now an angel of death, and with the turn of my wrist, I had returned to my normal form, replacing their memories with new ones, as if I had killed all the men with my pistol alone.

“Cross Stitch,” Golden Gavel said, his chest rising and falling quicker than his lips could move. “Did you… Did you do this?”

“Wanna talk about that promotion now?” I asked, ignoring all the thugs around me as the two of us began to talk business.

Then, turning to all of his men, Golden Gavel asked, “Would anyone here be opposed to that?” The men around us were all completely frozen aside from their heads shaking, and even if any of them had opposed my promotion, I could just brainwash Golden Gavel into giving me the promotion anyway. I could even get him to give me his own position as the leader of the Diamond Dogs if I wanted. I could get anyone to do anything I wanted. The world was literally under my total control.

Over the next two years, I ran the Diamond Dogs as second in command, allowing Golden Gavel to run the operation while I watched in the background, making sure he didn’t mess anything up. The main reason for doing so was because this way, I could still have the respect of being a valuable member to the Diamond Dogs while not being so superior that they thought of me as their boss rather than their friend. I could always use my magic to make them respect me regardless, but there were various things that I never wanted to use my magic to do, such as making people love me, looking into my future, and turning back time to get a better result. I had already seen what could happen if I did that once, and honestly, it felt like I wasn’t even part of the same world when I did, like there was no point in me even continuing the game if it was all really that easy.

In the meantime, in order to keep my powers, Discord asked that I use my magical girl powers to do good in the world and earn brownie points, which was really just his way of stealing magic from my world so that he could put it into his own masterpiece: Platinum City. It seemed that every city had some kind of parallel dimension, and Manehattan, being the largest city in Equestria, was where Discord decided to design his own kingdom. While other parallel dimensions had rocks and dirt, his city had luscious, flowing streams, giant high rises and beautiful green gardens. In fact, he loved it so much that he got angry whenever I entered, seeing as how my magic would drain the magic that I had used to build it up in the first place. Instead, I stayed in my dimension, using my magic that would then be transferred from Manehattan to Platinum City, helping Discord to continue stealing my world’s magic in hopes that the world would fall into greater chaos.

Eventually, though, Golden Gavel called me into his office, and by this time, I wasn’t the same girl I had been when I first joined the Diamond Dogs. By this point, I had already seen over one hundred people die by my hands, changing me from the punk hoodlum that I was into a refined lady that could grasp the value of life a little bit better. Not only that, but by this point, I was as rich as I could have possibly imagined, wearing designer clothes that rivalled even Golden Gavel’s attire. There was just no cause for me to be the rebellious girl that I used to be anymore. By this point, I began to understand how the world worked as well as how I fit in to make my own mark.

“Cross Stitch,” he said, sitting across from me at his desk. “I think it’s time we expanded.”

I smiled. “I think you’re right. You know, I’ve always liked that wall with the map of Manehattan, but I always felt like you deserved more. Like a skyscraper where you could look out over the entire city of Manehattan.”

“I was thinking differently, actually.” As I tilted my head in confusion, Golden Gavel leaned over his desk with a giant grin on his face. “How would you feel about Canterlot?”

“Canterlot? I… Wow! Umm… I guess I’ve never really thought about leaving before.”

“Imagine everything you just said, only we both get beautiful offices with glass walls where we can look out over not only the city, but halfway across the continent! Can you imagine us coming this far? And we wouldn’t have been able to do it without your help, which is why I’m going to leave the decision to you.”

Leaving Manehattan, however, would also mean leaving Discord, which he definitely would not have liked, but then again, with the powers that I had, it wasn’t like I couldn’t go back to Manehattan whenever I (or he) wanted. I could talk to him about it later, but in the meantime, I had a job to do.

“Yes, Golden Gavel. I think that’s a wonderful idea.”

We didn’t wait five days before we had secured the perfect spot to set up our business, doing whatever we needed to do to avoid the police sniffing around when they weren’t wanted. I still hated them more than anything else, but at least by this point, I had such a high reverence for human life that I would only intervene if it meant protecting my gang. I still hadn’t told Discord, but at the time, I didn’t feel like that would be such a big deal. If he needed me in Manehattan, I would transport myself to Manehattan a couple times a week, do the magical girl thing and come back as if life were proceeding as normal. Unfortunately for me, however, someone would find out about me much quicker than Discord did.

It happened one night when I was setting up my new office, completely alone at 3 o’clock in the morning while everyone else was asleep back in Manehattan. Golden Gavel had just turned in for the night, leaving me to take care of anything else that I wanted to take care of by myself, but the moment I turned into a magical girl, the first time I had done so in Canterlot, I could feel a new sense of magic. I could always feel how much magic I had in my veins whenever I transformed, but this time, I felt a lighter magic, as if I wasn’t the only one inside my body anymore. Just as soon as I noticed it, however, the feeling went away, again leaving me alone in my office while I was still transformed into Divinity.

“Discord?” I asked, looking over my shoulder. “Did you do something?”

“Discord? Me???” I turned to my side and yelped as I saw that rather than Discord being the creature summoned to my office, I was staring into the eyes of what looked like a pony with a lion’s mane and wooden horn in the middle of her forehead. I quickly yelped in surprise as she held up her hooves to calm me down. “Sorry! My bad! I just, well, I didn’t mean to sneak up on you or anything! It’s just so nice seeing new magical creatures here in Canterlot! Usually everyone just kinda sticks to their own dimensions or whatever, but it is so nice meeting a new face around here for a change! My name is Autumn Blaze. You can remember it because there’s a tree that has the same name as me! I promise, I came first, although I maaaay have had some influence in how the tree was named. Kinda vain. I know. Again, you can remember because trees have veins. Oh, sorry. Am I rambling? I do that from time to time. Now, what did you say your name was again?”

I blinked several times before I realized that she had even finished talking. What was this thing even supposed to be? I thought Discord was the only magical creature in the world, but I guess that was just in Manehattan.

“I’m Cros--I mean, my name is Divinity. I’m pleased to meet you, Autumn Blaze.”

“Divinity! That is suuuuch a beautiful name! Then again, you’re a beautiful girl, too! Hopefully that doesn’t sound weird coming from a kirin. I promise, I’m not trying to hit on you or anything! Anyway, I hope I don’t sound like I’m cutting to the chase, but I am so curious as to how you got those magical powers of yours! Were you born with them? Are you a human or something else? Shapeshifter? C’moooon! You’ve gotta tell me all--”

“I received my powers from Discord and I’m a magical girl. Please, forgive me if I seem blunt, but I’m not sure I have the patience tonight to continue talki--”

“Discord, huh? Isn’t he from Manehattan? You know, I’ve been to Platinum City a few times. Did you help him make that place?”

“Help would be a strong word,” I said, pulling a stapler out of a box and putting it on my desk. “Discord doesn’t like me visiting Platinum City much. He says I would suck all the magic from his beautiful creation.”

“And just what kind of power do you have?”

“All of them.”

As I continued to unpack my things, not waiting for Autumn Blaze’s reaction, she seemed to finally fall silent, seemingly in disbelief at what I had told her. “Now, when you say all of them, do you mean--?”

“All of them.”

“Jeeze! No wonder he doesn’t let you in there! That would suck all the magic out of that place dry! You know, me and Discord are pretty similar ourselves. Have you ever been to Everfree City?”

“Yes.”

“Of course you have! You’ve probably been to every alternate dimension by now! I’ll tell you what. If you wanted to help spruce up Everfree City a bit, I could sponsor your magic powers for you! It would mean leaving Discord, but I could make a deal with you to make it worth your while!”

“Autumn Blaze, please. I have a lot of work to do. What deal could you possibly give me that would make me abandon Discord for you?”

Autumn Blaze smirked. “I could make you the leader of Everfree City.”

Now my interest was peaked. I had already made myself the leader of this world, by proxy if not by any other means, and Discord rarely allowed me to ever enter into his masterpiece. Autumn Blaze was offering me literally the one thing I could not have on my own: dominion over a parallel universe. I took loyalty very seriously, something that was more honorable than anything else I had, but I had to seriously consider whether I wanted to stay true to the few morals that I had or give one of them up to reach what I thought before was an unattainable goal.

“Autumn Blaze… I…”

“She’ll have to deny your offer.”

Suddenly, I turned my head to the side, seeing Discord stare the two of us down with a face filled with anger and disappointment. He was literally the only thing that could ever scare me, and in that moment, I was petrified.

“Discord,” I began, “what are you--”

“Divinity, we’re going home. Autumn Blaze, I forbid you from ever speaking to my star pupil ever again.”

Autumn Blaze snorted. “Your star pupil? If you really hold her in such high esteem, how come you don’t even let her into the city she’s basically built for you all by herself?”

“I would watch my tone if I were you, Autumn Blaze,” Discord retorted, lifting himself into the air and floating in front of me, closing the distance between the two of them. “Divinity. Manehattan. Now.”

“Seriously, Discord? She’s a magical girl, not a dog! I think she should be free to make her own decisions!”

“And I think she should respect the god who gave her those powers in the first place.”

“Right, because that makes you sooooo noble? Divinity, I’ll let you keep every power you have as well as being the number one member of Everfree City if you join me!”

“She’s not interested!”

“Isn’t that for me to decide?!” Both Autumn Blaze and Discord turned to face me, albeit with stark differences in their facial expressions. “Discord, you know how much I respect you, but you also know how business works. If Autumn Blaze is offering me something that you refuse to give me, it’s going to take more than just my loyalty to keep me enlisted as your own personal chaos machine.”

Autumn Blaze smiled wider, to which Discord pinched the bridge of his muzzle. “Divinity,” he said, “I’m afraid I’m going to have to show you exactly what happens to those who defy me.”

Suddenly, my entire office lit up in a giant green light, which no doubt was bright enough to make half of Canterlot take notice. As I fell back onto my butt, I saw Discord and Autumn Blaze throwing blasts of magic towards each other, causing whatever they touched to disintegrate into thin air. Autumn Blaze was at a disadvantage seeing as how the only way for her to project magic seemingly came from her horn, whereas Discord had a lion paw and an eagle claw, both of which were shooting out magic at twice the rate Autumn Blaze could. While Autumn Blaze spent most of her time defending, Discord was throwing magical punch after punch, closing the gap between the two of them until it seemed like Autumn Blaze was no match for the draconequus.

“Divinity!” she cried. “Help me!”

“Discord, stop!” I shouted, but in the heat of his anger, it seemed like Autumn Blaze was about to perish. Doing the only thing I could think of, I sent Autumn Blaze away, back to Everfree City and putting a lock between the two portals to keep Discord from entering. Of course, he could just undo my magic, but I had put so many locks between them at this point that Discord would be trying for half an eternity to break them all.

Then, the moment he looked at me, I disappeared, returning once again to Everfree City, a barren wasteland that consisted of dirt and rocks, not even any houses to speak of. Turning to my side, I was now locking eyes with Autumn Blaze, who was looking up at me with grateful eyes.

“That was a very brave thing of you to do back there,” she said with a small, apologetic smile.

“I just did what any magical girl would do,” I said with a brief laugh, but rather than laugh back, Autumn Blaze looked back at me with a despondent expression.

“I can’t go back to Canterlot. You did something, didn’t you?”

I dropped my head forward. “I made it to where Discord can’t make it into Everfree City, but in order to do that… I had to make it to where you wouldn’t be able to get out.”

“Can’t you fix it?”

“I don’t know how. My powers only enable me to use magic that I can think of, and I can’t think of any ways that I can theoretically make you safe without putting a barrier between the two of you. Only magical girls can get in now.”

Autumn Blaze chuckled sarcastically. “Right. If only I had a magical girl of my own.”

Then, grabbing hold of Autumn Blaze’s hoof, I looked into her eyes and said gently, “You do.” Her pupils went wide as my smile began to grow wider. “Autumn Blaze, I hereby dedicate myself to you and to Everfree City.”

Suddenly, I felt a power shift in my veins. It was as if the color of my blood in general were switching from black to green, giving me a mixed range of sensations throughout my body like muscle spasms and a cold sweat, but once it was over, I didn’t feel any different than I did before the switch. I was just Divinity. The same Divinity as always.

“Is…” I began. “Is that it?”

“Yeah, but I would wait another minute or two for Discord to calm down.”

With a sigh, I squatted down, dropping my head down into my lap. “He’s going to kill me as soon as I get back, isn’t he?”

Autumn Blaze shook her head. “He can’t do that.”

“What?! He can’t?!”

“Nope! Beings like us, we don’t have any control over life and death of human beings, and even though you’re a special kind of human, we can’t kill you either.”

“But… I thought Discord had the exact same powers as I did!”

“He does except for this one exception.”

I then fell backwards, laying back on the dirt road. Finally, after a few moments had passed, I turned the dirt beneath me into a cloud, tossed my golden bracelets to the floor, undid my sandals and pulled my sleeves up, just to fall back down again with my arm over my forehead.

“This whole thing seems so confusing to me,” I said. “What even am I?”

“That’s easy! You’re a magical girl!”

I scoffed at the response, which I felt was a cop out to my real question. “In that case, what do we do now?”

“Well, I don’t think Discord is going to hurt you at this point. If anything, he’s just going to try to convince you to come back to him.”

“But if I do that, will you die?” Autumn Blaze nodded her head, to which I scoffed again. “I may as well never leave this place.”

“You can stay for as long as you’d like, but we both know you have a life outside of Everfree City.”

I sat back on my cloud for several more moments, trying to think of some kind of conclusion, but then an idea hit me harder than any idea I had ever thought of before. “What if I had a life in both places?”

Autumn Blaze lifted an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“What if I continued to do what I was doing with Discord, only I would help make Everfree City a utopia?”

“That’s nice and all, Divinity, but with the amount of magic you use up just by coming here, I don’t think that would work out very well.”

I smirked. “Then we’ll just have to recruit more, then, won’t we?” Autumn Blaze’s eyes went wide, and finally, I felt like I had found my perfect niche in not just my world, but in all worlds. Falling back onto my cloud, I looked off in the distance, trying to wrap my head around the fact that from now on, I would be living a life that was different from anything I had experienced before.

“Autumn Blaze, let’s get more magical girls.”